Action to Cure Kidney Cancer

Fred Atkin

Kidney cancer advocate, Fred Atkin of Commack, NY, recently participated in the evaluation of research proposals submitted to the Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program (PRMRP) sponsored by the Department of Defense. Fred Atkin was nominated for participation in the peer review process by Action to Cure Kidney Cancer (ACKC). As a consumer reviewer, he was a full voting member of the scientific peer review panel, along with prominent scientists and clinicians. The Fiscal Year 2009 (FY09) PRMRP received a $50 million congressional appropriation to fund research across 19 topic areas including kidney cancer.

Consumer reviewers are asked to represent the collective view of their community including survivors and patients, family members, and persons at risk for the disease. Specifically, they are asked to score and comment on the potential impact of the proposed study on issues such as disease prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, and quality of life after treatment. Fred Atkin was one of 65 consumer advocates who participated in the scientific peer review of applications submitted to the FY09 PRMRP and participated in the review of each research application on the panel. Commenting on his role as a consumer reviewer, Fred Atkin said that "Thanks to ACKC's perservering advocacy over the last few years, kidney cancer has been included by Congress as one of the diseases within the PRMRP. As a kidney cancer survivor I was most gratified that we evaluated so many kidney cancer proposals and I am hopeful that we will win more than one award this year. It was a pleasure meeting and working with so many outstanding scientists and clinicians who respected the consumers role and valued our proposal evaluations. I commend the PRMRP and American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) personnel for putting me at ease from the beginning and for running an effective and efficient proposal evaluation program."

Consumer advocates and scientists have worked together in this unique partnership to evaluate the scientific merit of research proposals submitted to the various programs managed through the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) since 1995. Captain E. Melissa Kaime, M.D., Director of the CDMRP, expressed her appreciation for the consumer advocates' perspective in the scientific peer review sessions. "The Consumer Reviewers on each panel helped the scientists understand the patient's perspective and provided valuable insight into the potential impact of the proposed project. Likewise, these important members of the peer review panels have been enriched by learning more about the scientific process through discussing proposals with the other peer review panel members and seeing the future possibilities of successful research outcomes."

The FY09 PRMRP challenged the scientific and clinical communities to address one of the FY09 congressionally-directed topic areas with original ideas that foster new directions in basic science and translational research; novel product development leading to improved therapeutic or diagnostic tools, or improvements in clinical policies/guidelines; or clinical trials that address an immediate clinical need. This program sought applications in laboratory, clinical, behavioral, and epidemiologic research as well as public health and policy; environmental sciences; nursing; occupational health; alternative therapies; ethics; economics; and strategic research, such as studies designed to shape the development of or to validate clinical policy or guidance.

More information about the Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program is available at the Website: http://cdmrp.army.mil/.

Action to Cure Kidney Cancer (ACKC) is a patient advocacy organization that also educates the kidney cancer community and funds kidney cancer research projects. We were founded in 2003 because of our recognition of very low kidney cancer research funding due to a lack of advocacy. ACKC is responsible for kidney cancer being added to the Peer Review Medical Research Program and that has enabled two kidney cancer research awards in the last two years. In addition ACKC has funded kidney cancer research at National Institute of Health (NIH), Fox Chase and Stanford University. ACKC continues to advocate for $15 million for kidney cancer research in the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program.

ACKC is a 501(C) (3) not-for profit organization. Donations to our organization are tax deductible and can be given at our Website: http://www.ackc.org/. ACKC is a volunteer organization. No one receives a salary. Your donations are used to fund kidney cancer research and to support our advocacy efforts.

MediaContact:
Gail Whitehead, Public Affairs, 301-619-7783

gail.whitehead@amedd.army.mil